MLS: Top 5 Goalkeepers in league history

1. Tony Meola

Taking the top spot on our list of the best ever goalkeepers to play in the American top flight is the only shot-stopper to have been named as the league’s Most Valuable Player, Tony Meola.

The goalkeeper was part of the league’s inaugural season in 1996, following on from spells in England with Brighton and Watford, and time spent in the lower leagues of American soccer, with Fort Lauderdale Strikers and Long Island Rough Riders.

MLS Career & Honours:

• MetroStars/NY Red Bulls (1996-1998, 2005-2006)
• Kansas City Wizards (1999-2004)

——————

• MLS MVP – 2000
• MLS Goalkeeper of the Year – 2000
• MLS Cup MVP – 2000
• MLS Comeback Player of the Year – 2000
• MLS All-Time Best XI
• Single-Season Shutout Record (16)

——————

• MLS Cup – 2000
• Supporters’ Shield – 2000
• U.S. Open Cup – 2004

Meola was allocated to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars ahead of the inaugural MLS campaign in 1996, and he played for the club for three seasons, playing in nearly every regular-season match for the club over that period. The USMNT international set the league record for shutouts in its debut term with nine.

Following the 1998 campaign, and having played 90 regular-season matches for the MetroStars, he was traded to the Kansas City Wizards, but only played nine times throughout his first campaign with the club. His second would go down in the history books as the best single-season a goalkeeper has ever had in Major League Soccer.

The 2000 term saw Meola sweep up nearly every award possible for a shot-stopper, including breaking a league record which he still holds to this day. He kept 16 clean sheets in just 31 regular-season matches, setting a new single-season mark that is still yet to be matched two decades on.

Thanks to his performances, the USMNT star took the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award, MLS Comeback Player of the Year award, and was named to the MLS Best XI. However, somewhat more importantly, he also became the first, and to date only, goalkeeper to be named MLS MVP for his efforts.

Thanks to Meola’s performances, the Wizards made it all the way through to the MLS Cup having won the Supporters’ Shield earlier that year. In a battle of two sides aiming to win a double in 2000, the Wizards got the better of Chicago Fire in the MLS Cup final, with the Fire then going on to win the U.S. Open Cup just six days later. Meola kept a clean sheet in the MLS Cup final and was named MLS Cup MVP to add to his growing list of awards for the season.

He would play in Kansas City for a further four seasons, but like everyone else, he was unable to get back to that mark of 16 clean sheets in a single season. He was part of the Wizards’ side that lifted the U.S. Open Cup in 2004, his final campaign with the club before returning to New York.

Meola re-joined the Metro Stars ahead of the 2005 term and went on to play a further 35 regular-season matches for the club over the next two seasons, as they rebranded to become the New York Red Bulls for what would be the American’s final stanza in professional soccer.

He was named to the MLS All-Time Best XI in 2005, which marked a decade of action in Major League Soccer, and went on to play one more year for the Red Bulls, retiring at the end of the 2006 term following an 11-year stint in the league.

Meola ended his MLS career with 62 shutouts in 250 regular-season appearances, along with 23 post-season matches under his belt, including an astonishing five clean sheets in seven playoff games on the run to the 2000 MLS Cup title with Kansas City, another mark of how well the shot-stopper was playing that year, amassing a total of 21 shutouts in 38 appearances.

He remains the only goalkeeper in the 25-year history of the league to be named Most Valuable Player, and the single-season record of shutouts could be one that remains Meola’s for a long time. A worthy man to place at the top of our list of the best ever goalkeepers to have featured in Major League Soccer.